(Stock photo from WikiMedia Commons user "missvain.")
The U.S. government will shut down early Sunday morning if Congress can’t reach an agreement on federal spending for fiscal year 2024.
In practice, a shutdown would mean many federal employees — like half of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and one-fifth of the Food and Drug Administration — would be sent home. Others, like air traffic controllers and police, would continue to work but won’t be paid until after an agreement is reached.
It would also mean disruptions to the country’s social safety net, which was already reduced this year by the COVID-19 public health emergency’s end.
If the shutdown lasts weeks, the SNAP food benefits program might run out of money as it almost did during the 2018-19 shutdown.
Head Start programs that provide educational day care to 3- and 4-year-olds would be shuttered. They closed 2 days into the 2013 shutdown.
Free and reduced-price lunch programs may also have to stop, according to Politico.
And the nearly 7 million parents and young children on the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program would lose benefits within days of the Oct. 1 deadline. Prospective applicants would also face a waitlist for services.
The cuts to WIC in particular have drawn national attention.
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